This invention relates to a flying saucer or disc which is an aerodynamic toy and which is placed in flight by appropriate throwing of the disc by the user of the toy. A disc of this description is illustrated and described in prior issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,678, entitled FLYING SAUCER, issuing December of 1967.
Difficulties have been experienced in the past in incorporating decorative designs or other forms of images on the exposed convex and upper surface characterizing the usual flying disc. In the past, decorative effects have been placed on this disc surface, either with painting, or by the application of a suitable decal or decals. Neither of these approaches has been entirely satisfactory. Decorative coatings applied in this way are subject to chipping or scraping and other types of wear during use of the toy, and clear sharp images or patterns in bright distinctive colors, with the appearance of being a permanent part of the disc surface, have generally not been producible.
In general, this invention concerns a new and improved process for making a disc which incorporates, as a covering over the upper convex surface of the disc, a laminate layer integrated throughout its expanse with the plastic material forming the body of the disc.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved form of flying disc which includes a decorative coating as part of a laminate layer extending over the convex upper surface of the disc.
In a particular and preferred embodiment of the invention herein disclosed, a laminate layer is prepared which includes an outer layer or lamina of a clear thermoplastic material, and an inner layer or lamina of thermoplastic material which lies against the outer layer. Interposed between the two lamina of material is imaging material forming the graphics or design which it is desired to incorporate in the final disc. During injection molding of the thermoplastic material which forms the body of the disc, a laminate sheet including two layers of thermoplastic material having imaging material sandwiched between the layers is positioned to extend within the interior of a mold cavity used in the injection process. The sheet spans the concave face of the mold cavity which shapes the convex side of the final disc. Molten or fused thermoplastic material is injected into the mold cavity against the side of the sheet which faces away from the convex side of the mold cavity. The injected material softens and distorts the sheet to force the sheet throughout its extent against the convex mold surface, and with cooling, a unitary body is formed of the hot injected material and the sheet which the material has contacted. The sheet and the bonded body which backs it up are removed as a unit from the mold. The residue of the sheet in the completed disc forms a laminate layer surfacing the disc.
In the preferred embodiment, this laminate layer is cut-away to produce a terminal edge for the layer adjacent an edge in the disc forming the perimeter of the disc. Preferably this terminal edge forms one side of a shallow groove prepared about the disc adjacent its perimeter. A clean appearance is imparted to the disc as a whole. With the edge of the laminate layer disposed slightly axially inwardly of the edge forming the perimeter of the disc, abrasion--or scratch--producing forces arising during use of the disc impact the edge of the disc rather than having a damaging effect on the edge of the laminate layer.
A further object of the invention, therefore, is to provide an improved flying disc which features a laminate layer forming a decorative covering for a convex external surface of the disc, where such layer terminates in an edge extending about the disc inwardly of an edge forming a perimeter of the disc.
More specifically, an object is to provide such a disc where the disc includes a shallow groove extending about the disc directly adjacent a perimetric edge in the disc, and where a graphics-imparting laminate layer has a terminal edge bounded by one side of this groove.
These and various other objects and advantages are obtained by the invention, which is described herein below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: